Help! Help! I'm Being Repressed!

The "fire demons" are fought in the streets of Cauldron, bringing a halt to their burning feast. Jonl hears cries of help from inside the burning Minuta's Board, and Snake leaps through a second story window to rescue a servant boy trapped under burning debris.

During and after the battle, temple representatives from Cuthbert, Kord, and Pelor assist the wounded and, in the case of Cuthbert's clergy, even help mitigate the damage done by the fiery creatures.

After the interruption, the party stops at Tygot's door where he shows them a number of items that Alek sold to him on his last stop in Cauldron. A life-sized statuette of a small goose carved by the local heroine Timilda about eight centuries ago. A 250-year-old painting of a standing knight, thought to be a portrait of a bailiff in a distant town. A gold-plated darkwood mask of a baboon, an artifact of the hillfolk native to the Cauldron region. A bust of a fish-like monster that resembles the Morkoth carvings at the inn. And lastly, a rectangular plate of silver etched with odd figures and ciphers. A crude map and a few notes are scratched into the opposite side of the plate. All of the items are purchased from Tygot.

The next day, Morgan has his trial. It ends up being a pretty straight forward deal, until the end where Modisto breaks into outrage over the "small fine" that is levied against Morgan. Shenanigans are had, including a charmed city guard and invisible flying Modisto. In the end, Modisto escapes from his over-night stay in the city dungeon.

Jonl returns to life after complaining of seeing bright lights and hearing loud noises and crashing metallic balls. He claims he cant here himself think, and everyone seems to agree. But now that he can hear himself, he remembers he has a useful ability to decipher codes and such, much like the writing on the tablet. So he sets to work and is able to crack the cipher.

The six-armed figure on the tablet is a "spell weaver", and the humanoid figures are some sort of "giant man", maybe ogres or proper giants. The "spell weaver" on the right hand column is the leader and he holds something referred to as the "starry mirror" above his head. A string of numbers are depicted under the mirror: 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3.

On the left side of the plate, three scenes are depicted, read from bottom to top. The bottom scene depicts the giant slaves of the spell weavers toiling to build a structure. The next scene depicts the same giant slaves, but now empowered by an "amaranth elixir" that grants them great strength to aid in their work. The topmost scene shows the structure fully built and describes its use as for planar travel of some sort.

More research is done on these topics and it is discovered that the malfunctioning of the spell weaver's planar travel installation is one of many theories on the creation of the Demonskar.

Snake also asks around his contacts about the headless demon next to the river scratched into the tablet. He confirms there is a headless demon statue on the river leading out of Redgorge.

A visit is made to Jenya where she admits that she's very worried about Alek. She has posed the question to the Star and its response was: "Late on the path of justice, trapped between glass and stone, he weeps where many can see him, but he can see only himself."

The party decides to head to Redgorge as a group. They arrive at the Redhead Miner's Inn where they meet the innkeeper Miki. Miki is a big, smiling man who keeps his long red hair in a ponytail. As he serves the party drinks he offers them free food from a selection of dozens of delicious snacks. It seems a tradition of Miki's to offer his client's an evening meal with their drinks.

While enjoying their meal, they meet Ekaym, or the Honest Minstrel as he is otherwise known. He invites the party to a meeting of his colleagues where they will have a chance to meet with Maavu.

Below the inn, the party is introduced to Oliron, the Foreman of the group known as the Chisel, whom Maavu, Miki, and Ekaym all belong to. Oliron describes the Chisel as an organization whose philosophy is to protect the Cauldron region and support local artisans and craftsmen. Maavu shows up for the meeting and thanks the group for meeting with him.

The party shares with the Chisel the books they stole from the mayor's office and their discovery of Terseon planning to invade and search Redgorge using the half-orc mercenaries now camped outside Cauldron's walls. The Chisel agrees that such a search would be disastrous for the village, many of the villagers would resist such an attempt and the Chisel has no thoughts of laying aside. Oliron believes that Alek's public renouncement of his challenge might just persuade Skellerang to renounce this plan. Oliron also shares that the Chisel has paid for divinations that reveal some great disaster on the horizon.

All eyes turn to the Crimson Tears, will they save Alek Tercival before its too late, or will Redgorge fall?